1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet reversing apparatus, and more particularly, to a sheet reversing apparatus which is provided in an image forming machine, such as an electrophotographic copying machine, a laser printer or the like, for duplex copying which is copying on both sides of a sheet.
2. Description of Related Art
There is a type of copying machine which has a duplex copying function. In duplex copying, generally, a copy sheet fed from a sheet feeding section receives the first image on the first side and is stored in an intermediate tray temporarily, and the sheet is fed again to receive the second image on the second side.
In order to carry out the duplex copying, a mechanism for reversing the sheet after receiving the first image is necessary. Conventionally, a reversing path is disposed upstream of the intermediate tray, and the sheet which has received the first image is guided from a take-in path into the reversing path without changing the traveling direction. Immediately after the trailing edge of the sheet comes out of the take-in path, a reversing roller provided in the reversing path is reversed, and simultaneously a diverging pawl is switched to open a path toward the intermediate tray.
The reversing mechanism requires means for switching the reversing roller between a normal rotation and a reverse rotation and means for switching the diverging pawl. Further, sensors which detect the position of the sheet are necessary for control of these switching means.
There is a possibility that a sheet is fed into a reversing mechanism askew, and if the sheet is reversed without correcting the skew, trouble such as a sheet jam may occur. However, there have been conventionally no reversing devices which have a function of correcting possible skew of a sheet.